What is the relationship between forms of social life and forms of art? In Social Aesthetics, Professor Georgina Born of Oxford University offers an analysis of the social in music and art using what she calls ‘planes of analysis.’ This is an empirical, ethnographic method of gathering data through observation, a way of finding out, rather than making assumptions about how the social is involved in any particular musical or artistic event. The social is not the only component in what Born calls musical assemblages, but in my conversation with her in this episode, tools for describing this aspect of it are illuminatingly explained.

Sound It Out airs on CFRU in Guelph on Tuesdays at 5pm. New episodes usually appear on a fortnightly basis. Sound It Out is produced and hosted by Rachel Elliott in conjunction with the International Institute for Critical Studies in Improvisation.

This episode aired on December 18, 2018.